Debated in Parliament on 11 May 2021.
Ms He Ting Ru asked the Prime Minister (a) in the last 10 years, how many citizens are struck off the Registers of Electors after each election, broken down by gender, age and ethnicity; (b) across the last 10 years, how many citizens are restored to the Registers of Electors each year, broken down by gender, age and ethnicity; and (c) what percentage of citizens are restored only after paying the fee.
After an election, the Elections Department (ELD) will compile a list of voters who did not vote in the election, that is, non-voters. In accordance with section 43 of the Parliamentary Elections Act, their names will be expunged from the Registers of Electors (REs), and they can apply to ELD to restore their names, after which they will be able to vote at subsequent elections.
For the General Elections held in 2011, 2015 and 2020, the number of voters whose names were expunged from the REs were 147,396, 155,155 and 111,117, which was 6.67%, 6.30% and 4.20% of the total number of eligible voters at each of these General Elections respectively. Tables A1, A2 and A3 show the breakdown of the profile by age-bands, gender and ethnicity.
The number of non-voters who apply to restore their names to the REs generally spikes nearer the election period, at key exercises, such as the revision of the REs or when ELD sends notification letters to non-voters to remind them to restore their names. Hence, it would not be meaningful to present the data on a yearly basis. Of the 147,396 non-voters from GE2011, 83,100 (56%) restored their names before GE2015, and of the 155,155 non-voters from GE2015, 92,069 (59%) restored their names before GE2020.
Non-voters have to provide a reason for not voting at an election when applying to restore their names to the register. As long as the non-voter has a valid reason for not voting, ELD will restore the name to the register without penalty. In the last 10 years, no citizen had to pay the penalty fee to restore his/her name to the register.
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